Surgery Information / Job Description

Fun, friendly, hardworking team need a people orientated FT vet with a similar outlook to join us in our purpose built small animal practice just outside Edinburgh.

Do you take great fulfilment from helping people by giving them all the support and advice they need to help them make the right decisions for their pets?

Do you enjoy the immense challenge of being a great GP vet?

Do you appreciate the complexities of people and get why a difficult client might actually just be a worried pet owner?

Are you looking for a flexible rota that fits in with your lifestyle giving you enough time outside of work to keep you energised, passionate and excited about working with your patients, clients and team when you’re here?

And finally…can you hold up your hands when you make a mistake, take it on the chin, learn from it and share the experience to make you (and us) better at what you do?

Person Specification

About us and why we’re trying to do things right

We’re under no illusion that a veterinary surgeons role can be stressful but it doesn’t need to be and we hope you see it as a rewarding and fulfilling career. The main stressors that we see and that can be controlled and managed are challenges with client communication, poorly/overbooked booked consultations and ops lists, lack of breaks during the day, lack of progression/development opportunities and constantly getting out late. If those ring a bell with you and agree that things can be managed better then our vacancy might be worth considering.

We are growing at a comfortable pace, have a supportive and friendly team ( 3 FT vets, 2 FT nurses, 4 FT VCA’s, 2 FT CCA’s) and we’re located in a purpose built practice in Dunfermline within a 25 minute commute of Edinburgh. We believe in putting our team first, then the patients then the clients with our vision centred around longer consultations, appointment booking protocols, expected behaviours (from clients and each other – animals are bit more tricky!), taking lunch breaks, getting out on time (although maybe once a month an emergency or two changes that!) and getting time to work things up properly.

Our proactive and preventative approach to medicine is supported with iM3 digital dental radiography, surgical loupes, ultrasound ( we have a sonsocape p50 coming on trial next month), in house Idexx lasercyte, microscopy, blood pressure monitor, pulse ox, capnography and looking to add more as we grow. We would love to hear about any particular interest you have and want to develop to find out whether we could support you with it (if we can’t, we’ll tell you so we can both make the right decision as to whether we’d be a good fit).

Here’s a bit more about us and why you might want to join our team:

• You want to build client relationships with 15 minute consults for boosters and 30 minute consults for 1^st puppy and kittens vaccinations as well as more challenging presentations and euthanasia’s
• Are happy with our current covid protocols of not having clients in the consult rooms ( not ideal but we need to keep the team safe)
• Our clients seem to like us with a climbing feedback reputation score of 865 ( best in class is 870 and average for the industry is 640) and a net promoter score of 92
• You accept making mistakes then learning from them is part of improving
• You want a guaranteed lunch break
• You need a flexible rota so you can enjoy life outside of your job
• You want full support from us with any complaint handing (they occasionally happen, we get that)
• You want to work with digital radiography, iM3 dental radiography, high spec ultrasonography, in house idexx biochemistry/haematology/electrolytes, microscopy, pulse oximetry, blood pressure monitoring, dentistry)
• You love fixing rotten mouths and seeing those older animals that have ‘slowed down’ get their zest for life back once they’re out of pain
• You appreciate having a really supportive team – you’ll have bloods ready to interpret in less than half an hour, catheters placed, pre-anaesthetic bloods taken and ready for interpretation, pre meds drawn up and IV fluids set up and ready for operations to start on time. You’ll also get support handling challenging patients in consults when you need it to reduce stress on you/the patient/the owner
• You want a fantastic reception team booking your diary that understands the pressures on everyone in the team and manages the appointments accordingly based on practice protocols. Unplanned consults aren’t just squeezed in unless you specifically agree or if they are a genuine emergency. If clients are too late for their appointment we offer a rescheduled appointment later in the day or the following day so there isn’t a domino effect making you run behind but it still means the patient gets seen
• You are happy to help others in your team do their jobs to the best of their ability
• You haven’t ever experienced a strictly controlled op’s list. (we book op’s on expected time to complete within a strict operations slot on the diary. Dental procedures are allocated a maximum time slot, longer procedures are split over two or more anaesthetics. Sounds simple but it’s rarely done and makes a huge difference if you want to get your lunch which is what we want!
• You want allocated diary slots to allow time to do reports or update owners

  And we want you to join us if you:

• Are focussed on getting things done and seeing tasks through to completion
• Are happy to share ideas you have on how to make things better for you, your team and your patients
• Have something you love in veterinary medicine and want to rekindle that passion or develop it further.
• Are confident in your current skills, would like to develop more, and have a knack for building trusting relationships with your clients and colleagues
• Are respectful, compassionate and empathetic towards yourself and others
• Recognise that nobody is perfect and when things don’t go as planned it offers an opportunity to improve
• Are confident with routine soft tissue surgeries
• Are comfortable charging properly for your clinical expertise
• Can extract teeth with mucogingival flaps or are keen to learn by going on CPD
• Are extremely conscious of managing your time, recognise if things are starting to build up and overwhelm you ( eg emergencies, call backs, an unpredicted difficult operation) and are happy to ask for help when it occasionally does happen. That help might be rescheduling appointments or asking someone to pick up a few tasks for you. We’d prefer that than having you stay late or miss your lunch!
• Have a curious and caring attitude towards people as you’ll be working with a few, plus animals don’t turn up to appointments on their own

  This job is probably not for you if you:

• Get frustrated when clients don’t understand your explanations and hate having to get creative with your explanations so that they do
• Secretly wish you didn’t have to deal with people. Ever.

Benefits

Your package:

• We are offering 40 hours a week with 1:4 weekends but no out of hours work. Salary is negotiable ranging from £32k (newer graduate) to £50k (experienced vet comfortable with full mouth dental extractions, challenging soft tissue surgeries, basic orthopaedic procedures, moderate ultrasound skills)
• CPD budget is currently £1500 although a certificate is something we would always consider
• All professional fees are paid as well as a company pension.
• There are 20 days holiday per annum, plus bank holidays

To submit your application click the apply button.